Bitrate

[Techybec]

I'm ripping a whole bunch of CDs. I've set my MP3 output to VBR, and files are scanning at about 240kbps. I've read that CBR can encode at 320kbps. VBR doesn't play on all MP3 players. My question is, which format is better? Is it subjective?

[Dat Ei]

Best practice is to rip to a lossless audio format like flac. Once you have ripped to a lossless codec you can convert those files to any lossy format as often as you like or need to. That way you need to rip your CD collection only once in your life.

Dat Ei

[Techybec]

Best practice is to rip to a lossless audio format like flac. Once you have ripped to a lossless codec you can convert those files to any lossy format as often as you like or need to. That way you need to rip your CD collection only once in your life.

Dat Ei

I also rip a flac copy.
But its concerning that not all mp3 players will playback mp3 VBR.

Should I be using DSP effects? i have flac on the level 5 setting.

[garym]

I also rip a flac copy.
But its concerning that not all mp3 players will playback mp3 VBR.

Should I be using DSP effects? i have flac on the level 5 setting.

The only DSP effects I use in ripping to FLAC is REPLAYGAIN (adding both Track and Album values). Note that this just writes metadata tags that ReplayGain aware players can use. It does NOT change your audio at all.

Odd about mp3 players and VBR. I've not tried any players in the last 10 to 15 years that won't play VBR files.

[GBrown]

I've read that CBR can encode at 320kbps. VBR doesn't play on all MP3 players.

This may be a very old comment. I have not encountered anything current that doesn't support VBR.

Since you already have a lossless FLAC version you can easily create a separate version if needed.

[Techybec]

The only DSP effects I use in ripping to FLAC is REPLAYGAIN (adding both Track and Album values). Note that this just writes metadata tags that ReplayGain aware players can use. It does NOT change your audio at all.

Odd about mp3 players and VBR. I've not tried any players in the last 10 to 15 years that won't play VBR files.

What does "level 5 lossless" mean on the Flac dropdown options? It goes up to level 7—what level do others use?

[Dat Ei]

This is a compression rate (lossless compression like zip), which influences the resulting file size only, but not the audio quality (still lossless!). Higher compression rates need more CPU time to compress the audio data.

Dat Ei

[garym]

This is a compression rate (lossless compression like zip), which influences the resulting file size only, but not the audio quality (still lossless!). Higher compression rates need more CPU time to compress the audio data.

Dat Ei

And following up, it needs more CPU time to encode (although with any modern computer, this is trivial) but DECODING (playing the FLAC file) is essentially the same effort on the CPU whether it is level 0 or level 8.